Womb needed for proper brain development
...lopment. When a fetus's brain is developing during pregnancy in utero, very little patterned sensory stimulation reaches the brain, she explained. The eyelids are closed, the infant is bathed in fluid and minimal sounds are perceived. In contrast, once the premature infant is born, he is necessarily bombarded ...Pregnant women don't exercise enough: Study finds doctors need to better educate patients
...d Gynecology's 2002 guidelines for exercise during pregnancy and chair of the department of obstetrics and gyne...egnant women is rooted in old-fashioned notions of pregnancy as a time of confinement," Artal wrote in the September issue of Ob.Gyn News, a publication for obst...Study finds low birth weight rates vary widely across US
...rths to white mothers. Smoking or drinking during pregnancy approximately doubles the likelihood of low birth weight, as does a weight gain of less than 20 lbs. during pregnancy. Even after controlling for these established risk factors, the research team found that babies born in some regions of the U.S. we...Leaders work to establish diabetes plan for Pennsylvania
...ion. Women who develop gestational diabetes during pregnancy have a substantially increased risk of acquiring the disorder later in life, and women who have diabetes before becoming pregnant face a higher risk of complications for themselves and their babies. One out of every 10 healthcare dollars is spent on ...Abortion does not raise risk of depression
Claims that terminating an unwanted first pregnancy raises the risk of depression is called into quest...S women who aborted or delivered an unwanted first pregnancy between 1970 and 1992. The women were interviewed over several years to examine the relation between...Women, kids and Australia's mental health crisis
...id. "Post partum depression and mental illness in pregnancy are unique disorders which may affect the relationship between a mother and her child into the future. Women need specialist treatment and early screening. "In addition, women are more likely to suffer eating disorders and panic disorder. Men are mor...The Cochrane Library newsletter, 2005, Issue 4
... to recommend routine bed rest for hypertension in pregnancy Currently there is a lack of evidence that keeping pregnant women with high blood pressure in bed for a prolonged period of time improves the chance of a healthy delivery. Prolonged bed rest is disruptive to women's lives, carries the risk of genera...Study finds government advisories on fish consumption & mercury may do more harm than good
... one-sixth, the loss of omega-3 fatty acids during pregnancy would cut the nutritional benefit by 80%. If other adults were to also decrease their fish intake by one-sixth, then risks from coronary heart disease and stroke would increase. For example, among 65 to 74 year old men, the annual mortality risk wo...Study shows that prenatal exposure to alcohol may cause visual problems in infants
...born to mothers ages 30 and older who drank during pregnancy were at greater risk for poor visual acuity, although the older mothers did not drink larger quantities of alcohol. The authors speculate that this could be attributed to the age-related physiological changes in older mothers or to chronic drinking ...March of Dimes receives federal grant to help meet needs of pregnant women and infants in Louisiana
...port groups of 10 to 15 women at the same stage of pregnancy will be created to help them through their potentially stressful pregnancies. The program also will provide education and support for an estimated 2,500 families with infants in NICUs at three Baton Rouge hospitals. Prematurity is the leading k......reness-based methods of family planning to prevent pregnancy engage in more frequent sex before and after the f...onitor their cycle days and identify the days when pregnancy is most likely (days 8 through 19). The TwoDay Method is for women with any cycle length and to use...Leading pediatricians group recommends infants sleep in cribs, not parents' beds
...s, in a room that isn't overly hot. Smoking during pregnancy increases a baby's risk of SIDS, and giving pacifiers at naptime and bedtime are associated with a reduced risk of SIDS. "This is a clear recommendation from the Academy of Pediatrics that looked at a number of factors that contribute to babies dying...Call for research funding to prevent pregnancy complications
...rs got a call for more research funding to prevent pregnancy complications from a Yale School of Medicine resea...or diagnosis, management and prevention of adverse pregnancy outcomes. He pointed out the important role of risk assessment with fetal fibronectin and cervical l...The Epilepsy Foundation issues Call to Action
...m anticonvulsant drug use occurs very early in the pregnancy and is compounded by the fact that nearly 50 perce...ort and long term. 3. If you are planning a pregnancy or you are pregnant, talk with your healthcare provider as soon as possible. 4. Do NOT stop or red...Only one-third of women take vitamin to help prevent serious birth defects, survey finds
.... Daily consumption of folic acid beginning before pregnancy is crucial because NTDs occur in the early weeks after conception, often before a woman knows she is pregnant. The number of women who said they had heard of folic acid reached an all-time high in the 2005 survey at 84 percent, up from 52 percent in ...Women in Uganda have a higher risk of HIV infection during pregnancy
...onsible. They believe that hormonal changes during pregnancy could make women more susceptible to HIV infection...hat HIV acquisition is substantially higher during pregnancy than after giving birth. Another study in Rakai, Uganda suggested similar trends. However, neither o...Long-term smoking is associated with up to 40 percent increased risk of breast cancer
...cer risk because of the known protective effect of pregnancy on breast tissue. "During pregnancy, breast cells undergo a process called differentiation, which makes them less susceptible to carcinogens, whereas breast cells in women who have never given birth are less differentiated and therefore may be more v...Post-stroke tests not used often enough, especially in women
... echo-cardiogram of their heart, a test similar to pregnancy ultrasound that creates a movie of the heart and can looks for clot-producing conditions and other problems. Women were also 43 percent less likely to have exams of their carotid arteries, which can become narrowed by cholesterol plaque that blocks b...Severe maternal morbidity in Canada, 1991-2001
The death of a mother during pregnancy or delivery is fortunately a rare event. So rare, that routine tracking of national and provincial rates, while important, fails to capture other non-fatal but serious health hazards. Shi Wu Wen and colleagues report rates of severe maternal morbidi......e the mother synthetic steroids and to prolong the pregnancy for as long as possible. "The kidneys are also in ...udied to learn how synthetic steroids given during pregnancy may act in the brain to alter regulation of blood pressure, affect the development of the kidneys an...